Manchester City’s nine game unbeaten run was abruptly ended at Villa Park, as they succumbed to a narrow defeat against Aston Villa.
Matty Cash grabbed the only goal of the game – a fierce left footed effort from the edge of the box that found the very bottom right corner, giving City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma no chance.
Villa dominated most of the first period but City had enough chances throughout the game to come away with a point or more, most notably with Erling Haaland’s late equaliser
being ruled out for a narrow offside on substitute Omar Marmoush.
Here are three things we learned from defeat in the Midlands:
Holding midfield is the most important position in a Guardiola team
As anticipated, Nico Gonzalez wasn’t fully fit to start, so Pep Guardiola opted to play Tijjani Reijnders as the deepest lying midfielder.
Reijnders has many strengths, but dueling isn’t one of them, so a midfield three of him, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden were completely dominated by the combative trio of Amadou Onana, John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara in the first half.
They improved in the second half but when Nico replaced Bernardo, things went up another level. City controlled the game from that point and were perhaps unlucky to not get an equaliser.
To put it simply – the first half was like watching City last season. They had lots of possession but showed no threat and kept getting overpowered in the centre of the pitch.
It’s a growing opinion amongst pundits and fans that football is becoming more physical, and bringing on physical players in Nico and Nico O’Reilly improving City goes a long way to proving that.
Hopefully Nico remains healthy and Rodri comes back soon, otherwise we could unfortunately see many more games this season with a similar outcome.
There are better options than Bernardo and Stones
It’s sad to see especially after lots of unwarranted criticism last season, but I am now of the opinion that City need to transition John Stones and Bernardo out of the team.
Both players see their contracts expire next summer, and are 31 years old. Stones has struggled with injuries his entire career but particularly since City won the treble, and Bernardo has been inconsistent at best since the beginning of last season.
City’s club captain has hinted that he’ll leave this summer having declared he’s already made his mind up as to his future, whilst Stones considered retirement this summer.
Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol are City’s best centre back pairing right now, with Stones, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nathan Ake backups. Vitor Reis and Juma Bah are on loan, and there are constant rumours that City are interested in signing Marc Guehi, who will leave Crystal Palace on a free next summer.
There’s an abundance of quality there, meaning Stones is unnecessary for the long term future.
Bernardo, meanwhile, is up against Reijnders, O’Reilly, Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Mateo Kovacic, Rayan Cherki and Nico Gonzalez in central areas. Elliott Anderson and Adam Wharton are also apparent long term targets, so he could leave next summer too.
Both will still be useful squad players for the rest of their City careers, but I think the time has come to phase them out as they approach the final seven months of their illustrious time at the Blues.
Swansea must be used to get players up to speed
The Carabao Cup fourth round tie away to Swansea City on Wednesday might seem like a hindrance in terms of journey and short turnaround time between games, but I see it as a remarkable opportunity.
Omar Marmoush, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Cherki, Kovacic, and, if fit, Rodri and Khusanov, have been out for a good while and are short on match fitness.
I expect most, if not all, of those names to start against the Welsh outfit in order to build up fitness and confidence ahead of the upcoming tough run of fixtures, including games against Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
